Speaking Topics
First Year Experience Back to Topics
Sebastian Barry
Playwright, Poet, and Award-winning Author of The Secret Scripture and On Canaan's Side
Moustafa Bayoumi
Journalist and Author of How Does it Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America
R. Dwayne Betts
Author of A Question of Freedom and National Spokesperson for the Campaign for Youth Justice
Chaz Bono
LGBT Rights Advocate and Author of Transition
Geraldine Brooks
Author of the Pulitzer Prize-Winning March and the International Bestselling People of the Book
Frank Bruni
New York Times Op-Ed Columnist, Former Chief Restaurant Critic for the New York Times, and...
Sarah Chayes
Author of The Punishment of Virtue, Former NPR Reporter, and Founder of Arghand
Jared Cohen
Author of Children of Jihad: A Young American's Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East
Ron Currie, Jr.
Award-Winning Author of Everything Matters! and God is Dead
Junot Díaz
Winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Nuruddin Farah
Internationally-Renowned, Award-Winning Author of Knots, Links, and Crossbones
Zlata Filipovic
Author of the International Bestseller, Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo
John Green
#1 New York Times-Bestselling Author of The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska and...
Hill Harper
Bestselling Author of Letters to a Young Brother and "CSI-NY" Star
Aleksandar Hemon
Author of The Lazarus Project and Love & Obstacles
Doc Hendley
Founder and President of Wine to Water, CNN Hero, and Author of Wine to Water
Dave Isay
Founder of StoryCorps and Editor of Listening Is an Act of Love, Mom and All There Is: Love...
Mark Kurlansky
New York Times Bestselling-Author of Cod, Salt, and The Food of a Younger Land
Jean Kwok
Award-winning Author of Girl in Translation
Steve Lopez
Author of The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music
Dinaw Mengestu
Named one of The New Yorker’s “20 Under 40” Writers to Watch and Author of The Beautiful...
Greg Mortenson
Founder of the Pennies for Peace Program, Author of Stones into Schools, and Co-author of the #1...
Craig M. Mullaney
Author of The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education
David Rohde and Kristen Mulvihill
Authors of A Rope and a Prayer: A Kidnapping from Two Sides
Bich Minh Nguyen
Author of Stealing Buddha's Dinner and Short Girls
Mirta Ojito
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Reporter and Author of Finding Mañana: A Memoir of a Cuban Exodus
David Owen
Staff writer for The New Yorker and author of Green Metropolis and The Conundrum
Gin Phillips
Author of The Well and the Mine
Nick Rosen
Award-Winning Documentary Filmmaker, Journalist, and Author of Off the Grid
Mahbod Seraji
Author of Rooftops of Tehran
Elif Shafak
Internationally Acclaimed Author of The Forty Rules of Love and The Bastard of Istanbul
Sadia Shepard
Documentary Filmmaker and Author of The Girl from Foreign
Kathryn Stockett
Author of the New York Times Bestseller The Help
Josh Sundquist
Motivational Speaker, Paralympic Ski Racer, and Bestselling Author of Just Don't Fall
Thomas Chatterton Williams
Author of Losing My Cool: How a Father's Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-hop Culture
Koren Zailckas
Author of Fury: A Memoir and the International Bestseller Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood